THE PANELLED HOUSE. 203 thought that Escott was too heavy, disagreeable, | him as likely to attract Escott. Winny had always and ill-tempered for Winny to think of except as ene whom she had known from a boy. Probably the fact was that they did not think of it at all, for | neither of the good ladies were matrimonially inclined, and they looked on Winny as still almost a baby. Winny stopped by the way, and picked a bunch of red hips, and a long festoon of clematis, which | was just beginning to put on its silvery autumn attire. She proceeded to twine them together while she walked, and Escott talked. *Tt’s just as well for that fellow I told you of that I did not know how the governor would take it,’ he said. “I tell you, Winny, my life is a bur- den tome in this hole! He insists on coaching me himself, so there is no chance of my getting away, unless I cut. I think he will reduce me to that sooner or later.” “Don’t, please,” said Winny imploringly. “Well! how would you like it for a man who has refused to believe your word to stick you down in a hole like this, and take every opportunity of letting fly at you ? Winny. I said I would do what you liked as long as you held to me, and so I will. But you don’t know what it is. Why, the only fellows I have any chance of being friendly with he makes out to be fit for the gallows, and all the society I get Lam obliged to get underhand. I don’t want to: a safety-valve of some sort. beiler, you know—” “TJ wish he would see it,” said Winny sadly. «The only thing I can do is to work like a horse for something to do, and to get rid of it the sooner. When I am once my own master, catch me coming here again !” “Then when shall I ever see you ?” « Always, I hope, by that time. Of course you will, Winny !” Winny said nothing, but a wistful look came into her eyes, that he remembered afterwards. Did a shadow of the future fall upon her then, and prepare her for what was to follow ? « And now you are going away for ever so long. T can’t think what I shall do without you ! but you don’t care, I suppose.” “scott, you deserve that I should tell you I don’t,” she began: but she could not finish the sentence, for by this time they were at the gate of the Panelled House, and the others stood there in a cluster. ' If she had known who the “fellows” were to whom Escott had alluded, she would have been more uneasy still. She had heard character he bore ; but she had never thought of) a EEE nt TI only bear it because of you, | I | wouldn’t do it if I could help it: but I must have | If you sit on the | Mr. | Algernon Smith’s name, and knew what sort of a} | fluence. called out Escott’s best side : with all her keenness of sight, she did not know how the lawlessness of the Eseott nature lay dormant in him, ready to break out if not over-mastered by some higher in- Tt had only shown itself at present in chafing against authority, for Escott had a con- science, and although his Christianity was not strong enough to be a controlling power, its place was in some degree supplied by the influence which Winny nad over him, and he had borne himself with comparative blamelessness through his Oxford career, except in the carelessness which had led to debt. But there he had freedom and congenial society : here he had neither, except when associat- ing with Algernon Smith, and few men’s society could have been more dangerous to his tempera- ment. Algernon Smith was a clever man, a good talker, with agreeable manners, and sufficient tact to gauge the moral status of his acquaintances, so as to avoid shocking them by what he said. People who met him casually in society could not believe that the tales told of him were true: and Escott with a young man’s inexperience, habitual disbelief in his father’s warnings, and remembrance of their joint triumph at cricket, simply refused to believe them at all. ‘People tax me with what I | have not done,” said he: “ probably it is the same with Smith : or if not, it is a case of great ery and little wool.” Notwithstanding this danger, however, Colonel Armyn had little tangible reason, as far as he knew, to complain of his son just now. He kept him very strictly to work, and Escott, for once in his life, did work; but the family went to bed early, and Escott could lock his door, and escape, unperceived by any one, out of his window, over a sloping roof to the ground. Thence it was easy to take the mile’s walk to Algernon Smith’s house, where he found a host always ready to see him and to receive him cordially. Almost imperceptibly the leaven began its work upon him. Familiar association with a man who made self-indulgence the chief object of his life began to lower his own standard of manliness ; light sneers cleverly directed at feminine faith and morality, made him fancy that perhaps after all he had been foolish to pledge himself to follow | Winny’s standard of right. He felt something like the man whom George Herbert describes in one of his quaint poems, who “struck the board and eried,’”— What, shall I ever sigh and pine ? My lines and life are free; free as the road, Loose as the wind, as large in store, Shall I be still in suit ? Have I no harvest but a thorn, To let me blood, and not restore What I have lost with cordial fruit ?